Justice Peter Applegarth agreed, blocking Dr Milne from giving evidence-in-chief about the possible subdural haemorrhage and using the words “from an assault” and “likely cause of death” during his testimony.

“Dr Milne should not be allowed to speculate on a possibility of which there is no supporting evidence, or at least only slight supporting evidence,” he said.

Justice Applegarth also found medical evidence suggesting Mrs Baden-Clay had died by smothering or strangulation was “inconclusive”.

“To allow Dr Milne to speculate about them as possible causes would be unfair and carry a real risk that the jury would attribute undue weight to them,” he said.

But Justice Applegarth allowed forensic experts to testify about three scratches, which appeared on Baden-Clay’s face on the morning he reported his wife missing.

The defence team argued scratches were well within the “knowledge and common sense” of a jury, making an expert opinion unnecessary.

Baden-Clay has maintained the injuries on his face were shaving cuts, but the four forensic experts told the jury the abrasions were more consistent with fingernail scratches.

Without the evidence of the experts, Baden-Clay’s claims about the injuries may have never been disproved.

The jury did hear of Mrs Baden-Clay’s chipped tooth, but was told it could not be aged.

In his judgement, published on Wednesday, Justice Applegarth noted the defence made no application to exclude Dr Milne’s evidence about the possibility that Mrs Baden-Clay died from drug toxicity.

Throughout the trial, Baden-Clay’s defence pointed to Mrs Baden-Clay’s history with depression to suggest she took her own life, or died by misadventure or accident, as a result of the adverse effects of her antidepressant medication Zoloft.

As it happened, the jury did not require information about the possible haemorrhage, smothering or strangulation to find Mrs Baden-Clay died at the hands of her husband.

Baden-Clay was sentenced to life imprisonment after the jury of seven men and five women found him guilty of killing his wife at their home in the semi-rural western Brisbane suburb of Brookfield on April 19, 2012, and dumping her body on the banks of Kholo Creek at Anstead.

A suppression order on the application before Justice Applegarth was lifted with the delivery of the verdict on Tuesday.